Harry Markopolos
Slideshare has the 2005 SEC submission authored by Harry Markopolos. An absolutely fascinating read. Markopolos, a securities analyst, once worked for a competitor of Madoff. He could not figure out mathematically how Madoff was generating such levels of return. And he came to two major conclusions:
Unlikely: insider trading.
Highly likely: Madoff Investment Securities was the world’s largest Ponzi scheme.
His lengthy memo, available at Slideshare, offers a compelling example of the corruption taking place within the financial services industry in the United States. This op-ed piece in the New York Times provides more context.
Where on earth were the regulators during all of this nonsense?
I read the New York Times op-ed piece with amazement. It drives home to me that organizations staffed with intelligent people are capable of behaving and perhaps likely to behave stupidly and incompetently when self-interest becomes a factor.